Some of the Best Days...

...are concert days.  At least, when you're a chorister in the Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir, and you've been practicing faithfully all semester, and you are so excited to put on your plaid vest and black bow tie, that's true!  It's also true if you happen to be a parent of one or two of those choristers, and for several months you've been hearing songs in English and other languages coming from your son's bedroom where he's been practicing, and you've made sure that your child has all the proper parts of his uniform assembled, and you've been enjoying Christmas music for weeks and weeks already (because musicians who perform in Christmas concerts don't have a choice but to work on Christmas music months before December rolls around!), and you've had the Fall Concert marked on your family calendar since sometime in June, and now suddenly it's almost here!

Five days away, to be exact.  So close you can almost taste hear it.  ;-)

Last night during the Concert Choir's dress rehearsal, I meandered around, snapping a few photos here and there, while I savored the sounds of beauty filling the auditorium.

 Our new director has been the perfect fit for our choir--such a relief for anxious choristers and parents who wondered who could ever fill the gap left by previous directors!

 Sometimes a mother's eyes drink in the sight of their children, and so was the case for me last night with Josiah.  I watched and watched him, surrounded by friends he has gotten to know through the choir, and my heart swelled.

 This beautiful lady has been such a help for the choir this year!

 All those empty pews waiting to be filled on Sunday...it kinda makes me giddy.  :)

 Some of the VIPs who make things happen for the choir.  :)

 Last night I had a little sidekick.  While I snapped pictures of the choristers and whatever else caught my eye, Moriah tagged along and was a (mostly!) quiet companion.  I sure do love my girlie.  :)

 There has been some discussion about changing the uniforms for the choir; and as you can imagine, everyone has an opinion about it!

 The choristers got to give their input, and I'm curious to see what the final verdict will be.  Regardless of what the choir wears, however, they will still make heavenly music; and that's what counts the most.  :)

 This is perhaps one of the most-loved aspects of being in the SVCC. ;-)   It's the treasure chest from which each chorister may take a candy--or sometimes two, depending on circumstances--each week at the end of rehearsal.

 The SVCC wouldn't be the same without that!  ;-)

Here is where I make my shameless plug.  ;-)  For you locals who don't happen to have plans for 4:00 this coming Sunday afternoon, why not come out to the Fall Concert?  :)  No tickets required for this one, and you get the added benefit of hearing the Shenandoah Valley Youth Symphony perform, too!  More details are here.  :)

And if you happen to come, it will be easy enough to spot me.  I'll be the one whose heart has grown so big with motherly pride that it's actually pushed tears out of my eyes!

Funny how that happens.  ;-)

I Want to Take More Pictures of My Dad

Here's a start.  :)

Besides taking more pictures of my dad, I also want to give praise where praise is due and mention how devoted he continues to be to my mom.  He goes to visit her almost every day and cares for her with as much faithful love and loyalty as he ever did, which is a considerable amount!  ;-)  The fact that her address has changed doesn't mean that he's backed off in his commitment to her, and I appreciate that so much about him.

My mom's been having quite a time with her back recently, with a compression fracture to blame for the horrible pain she's been dealing with.  Dad has been especially attentive to her and has ached with her, carrying her pain on his shoulders and doing everything he can to help ease it for her.  It's made my own heart ache to see how this has weighed on him; but at the same time, I'm grateful for his deep love for her that makes him care so much.

As a child, I received such security from my parents' strong, loving marriage.

Guess what?  I still do. Thank you, Dad!!!  :)

A Relaxed Saturday Morning...

...just the way I like it!  :)

Moriah had a low fever last evening, and I checked her temperature again this morning, discovering that it was normal.  Having the thermometer out gave her the idea to check her own temperature, her stuffed puppy's temperature, and even big brother David's.  He was a good patient and didn't cry *too* much.  :)

 Next on Moriah's agenda was a bit of coloring.  :)

 She recruited an assistant.  :)

 And then, since the Little Miss needed some physical exercise, couch jumping was the next item on the to-do list.  :)

Saturday morning, at home, wearing pajamas--it's the best!  :)

"Give It a Month"

That's what I told myself often during the sometimes difficult moments of adjustment that we (errr...cough, cough...I) had during our first days with Willow (moments like walking into the kitchen and finding her eating my precious egg salad, and making a middle-of-the-night discovery that she had pooped on the bathmat, etc.).  "After a month, this won't feel so hard," I would comfort myself.  "You'll know what you're doing and what to expect from Willow, and she'll have settled into a good routine.  Don't judge how things with her will go until you get to November 14, because certainly by then, life with Willow will seem a whole lot easier than it does now!"

That was pretty good advice.  ;-)

For the most part, I have gotten used to having Willow...and we have figured out a good routine with her that includes inside and outside time...and life with her does seem easier than it did back then.  For one thing, we haven't had any more egg salad OR poop episodes, so that counts a lot in her favor.  ;-)

Last evening, Jeff and I were talking about her; and I mentioned something about how I tolerate her.  "Really?" he asked, surprised, I suppose, by the lack of my customary effusiveness, "that's all?"

"Well," I responded by way of explanation, "I do have all the work of her."

Maybe he already knew that I wasn't as indifferent to her as I was seeming to be; but whether or not he did, I was about to find out.  You see, during one of her outside breaks last night, Willow took off and was out of sight in the darkness in a very short time.  Jeff came into the house and told me what had happened, and suddenly the piercing of my heart told me that my response to her wasn't one of mere toleration!  But I will say that my immediate concern was for my children: I knew they would be so very sad if anything bad happened to Willow.  So maybe I really do just tolerate her--all for the sake of Jeff and the kids!!  You think?  ;-)

At any rate, it didn't take me long to hustle into a coat and shoes, and I joined Jeff outside as we searched for her.  She turned up outside our neighbors' house (and he called us this evening to ask what we had been doing in his yard with a bright flashlight at 1:00 AM!) ;-), but it was a bit of a hassle to catch her.  Jeff thinks she has some hearing loss, and that didn't do anything to help us get her back.  Plus, her desire for freedom was running pretty high; and of course, she has no idea of the possible consequences of that "freedom," especially living as close to a well-traveled road as we do.  I know I heaved a big sigh of relief when we safely had her inside our house again!

This evening, she tried the same trick again, although this time she ran away when I was bringing her from the pasture where she had been with Jed to the house.  Always before, she had made a beeline (seriously, you did NOT want to get in her way!) from the pasture gate straight to the kitchen where she knew some of her favorite food was awaiting her, but tonight that wasn't enticing enough, and off she ran.  

I cannot tell a lie: I was less than thrilled about her repeat performance and was not looking forward to traipsing around the neighborhood on a very cold night, looking for a dog that didn't even have the good sense to come in out of the cold and into the warmth and shelter of our home!  But fortunately, she stopped to socialize with the dogs that live at the neighbor's house directly in front of us, and we were able to catch up with her there.  

Well, now that we've seen what antics she's trying to get away with, I know not to take her outside without a leash, even the short distance from pasture to house.  Maybe someday she'll learn better sense, but until then, we need to keep her safe!

I've told you the most recent hard things about having Willow, but let me also include the good stuff.  First and foremost, she is so, so sweet with the kids.  We are so grateful that they are getting to experience such a loving, friendly dog; and that by itself is worth a lot in my book!  She learns quickly and doesn't repeat some of her early mistakes.  She literally helps me take more breaks, especially to appreciate nature.  I'm learning anew that crisp, cold nights have some of the most magnificent displays of stars you could ever hope to see.  ;-)

As time goes by, I am definitely learning more about Willow--her habits and quirks, her body language, her favorite things, etc.  I'm hopeful that, just like this first month of having her has made the task seem much easier, so the coming months will see all of us settling more and more into life together.

Because already, it's hard to imagine life without this sweetheart.  :)

 

 I took these photos of Moriah and Willow without flash this evening, but there was so much motion that the photos inevitably turned out blurry.

 Moriah loves to hug and kiss Willow...

 ...and also get kisses from her.  :)

 I turned the flash on for the next two pictures.

Happy one-month-with-the-Fishers, pretty Willow!  Thanks for all the love you give us!  :)

She's Our First Child to...

When people think of Moriah, the most obvious characteristic that makes her unique is, of course, the fact that she's our only daughter and has four big brothers.  But being a girl isn't the only thing that she's been the first of our children to do!

She was also the first to walk at the stunningly early age of 14 months!  ;-)  All the rest walked at 18 months or later.

She was also the first to try to climb out of her crib.  The boys never tried that particular stunt, but she did--once.  She fell, but wasn't seriously hurt.  Apparently it was enough, however, to teach her not to try that again!  ;-)

I'm sure there are a number of other things I could include in this list of "Moriah was the first to...", but tonight I'll only mention one more.  She was the first of our children to get out the baby powder and make a mess with it!

This was the scene I found when I walked into her room earlier today...

It's not that bad, I know.  Compared with pictures I've seen from other parents whose offspring have held unsupervised play sessions with a bottle of baby powder, I got off easy.  But even still, I couldn't help but think, "The boys never did this!!"  ;-)

Here's the thing though: Moriah was actually trying to help when this little incident happened.  She is SO quick to imitate and SO eager to take the initiative in finding ways to be helpful.  For example, a night or two ago, as I was getting supper ready, she went to the cupboard, got out a plastic cup for each of her brothers, then carried them one by one to the bathroom sink where she climbed up on the stool and filled them with water before carrying them to the table to place one at each brother's spot.  I didn't tell her to do that, and I didn't show her how to do it.  As a matter of fact, I get water from the kitchen sink where we have a water purifier (although there's really nothing too bad about the water from the bathroom sink), so it's not like Moriah has watched me do what she did.  But she recognized a need ("hey, supper is almost here, and the boys don't have drinks at their places yet!") and figured out a way to meet it.

She does stuff like that A LOT.  I'm always sort of in awe when I watch her do such things.  I feel like there is so much that I never consciously teach her, and yet she sees us, and copies us, and pretty soon she surpasses us!  ;-)

So, back to the baby powder.

As it turned out, Moriah had a dirty diaper, so she got the stool from the upstairs bathroom, carried it into her room, stood on it, pulled open the drawer, got out a clean diaper, also got the baby powder, laid the diaper down and opened it, then sprinkled some baby powder on it.

And also on the changing table and the stool and the floor.  ;-)

I only use baby powder occasionally when I change her diaper, but for whatever reason, Moriah felt like that should be part of that particular diaper change.  And so it was, the powder she had already poured into the new diaper being plenty to fill the need!  ;-)

As I cleaned up the mess Moriah had made, I felt thankful that she hadn't spilled even more baby powder; but I also thought, "Oh, little girl, you keep me on my toes!  In what other areas will you be the first of our children to pull off another stunt?"  :)